The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, ...

As the Islamic State caliphate disintegrates, and it is not known for sure whether its leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi is alive, dead, or deep underground like Osama bin Laden after 9/11 – or possibly in a Syrian hospital in "critical" condition, as was widely reported this week – th...

Speaking on the Egyptian Alhadath Alyoum TV channel on January 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, TV host Aahmad Suleimn called the Holocaust "the greatest lie in history" and "that nonsense story invented by the Jews" for extortion purposes. He further said that Britai...

Russia This Week is a weekly review by the MEMRI Russian Media Studies Project, surveying developing stories in Russian domestic affairs as presented in the Russian media.
Image Of The Week
Official logo of the 2018 presidential elections.
Caption: "March 2018 – El...

Following Israel's downing of the Iranian drone that entered its airspace on February 10, 2018 and its subsequent attack on the drone's command center in Syria, Hamas and other major Palestinian factions such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Palestinian Islam...

Russian intellectual Fyodor Lukyanov,[1] who serves as research director of the Valdai Discussion Club, surveyed the results of the annual Davos World Economic Forum that took place on January 23-26, 2018. Commenting on U.S. President Donald Trump's presence in Davos, Lukyanov st...

In a sermon in 2016, Sheikh Mustafa Umar, director of education and outreach at the Islamic Institute of Orange County, California and founder and director of California Islamic University, talked about the hypocrisy prevalent in attitudes toward Muslims and Islam in the West – a...

Speaking at an event held by the Ethiopian-American Muslims of the Washington metropolitan area on January 26, 2013, Imam Shaker Elsayed of the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center said that the Muslims had three sources of power – faith, unity, and armaments – and that "the world only f...

In a January 19, 2018 Friday sermon at the Islamic Centre of Southwest Ontario, in London, Ontario, Canada, Imam Munir Elkassem said that "jihad is not fighting," but is "a very noble principle where we exert energy to effect goodness." Complaining that MEMRI had taken "cuts and ...

The cover page of the book Yehud Ki Chalees Bimariyan ("Forty Diseases Of The Jews").
This is a book review of Yehud Ki Chalees Bimariyan ("Forty Diseases Of The Jews"), authored by Maulana Masood Azhar, the emir of Pakistani jihadi organization Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), and p...

On December 11, 2017, the Egyptian government daily Al-Yawm Al-Sabi' published an article by Hashem Al-Fakharani titled "From the '[Arab] Spring Plots' to 'the Buying of the White House' – The Protocols of the Elders of Zion Are Realizing Their Goals after 100 Years ..." In this ...

Saudi Imam Abdulwahab Al-Omari said, in a Friday sermon, that Allah turned the Jews into apes and pigs, and that on Judgment Day, they would be the soldiers of the Antichrist. According to Al-Omari, Jesus would descend before Judgment Day, accept the shari'a, and pursue the Antic...

In his November 19, 2017 column in the Egyptian government daily Al-Ahram, political researcher 'Amr 'Abd Al-Sami' wrote that Egypt should establish military bases outside its borders, in the Horn of Africa, as many other countries have done. This move, he said, was necessary in ...

In India, the dominant image of a Muslim woman, both in the minds of Muslims and non-Muslims, is the one fostered by Islamic clerics. Much like how images of gods and goddesses help Hindus to mentally access the spiritual world, stereotypes are concepts that aid humans' abili...

"Russia In The World" is a MEMRI Russian Media Studies Project review of Russia's geopolitical interests and areas of penetration. This installment will deal with Russia's relations in Mexico and Colombia.
The original image was taken from Studiya 13's Facebook page.
Russ...

Introduction
On February 10, 2018, Iranian forces in Syria sent an Iranian attack drone across the border into Israeli airspace; the drone was downed by an Israeli army helicopter. Israel then bombed the base and the command and control vehicle that had launched the drone, and...

A February 9, 2018 article on the pro-Hizbullah Lebanese website Dahiya claims that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad recently rejected an Israeli demand, relayed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, to remove some 70,000 Iranian long-range missiles that Hizbullah has deployed thr...

Alongside statements by Palestinian President Mahmoud 'Abbas and other Palestinian Authority (PA) and Fatah officials expressing opposition to terrorism and support for non-violent protests, officials and media outlets of the PA and Fatah continue to praise terrorists and to pres...

On February 2, 2018, the U.S Department of Defense released its Nuclear Posture Review (NPR). [1] The major criticism leveled by pro-government officials and opinion leaders at the NPR is that the document is "anti-Russian." The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is primarily co...

On February 2, 2018, the U.S Department of Defense released its Nuclear Posture Review. The new U.S. Nuclear Doctrine states that while Russia initially followed "America's lead and made similarly sharp reductions in its strategic nuclear forces," it retained large quantities of ...

The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, ...

In recent days, and against the backdrop of the success of the military campaign by the U.S.-led international coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS), top officials of Iran-supported Shi'ite militias in Iraq that are part of the Hashd Al-Sha'bi (the Popular Mobilization Units...

Kremlin critic and prominent Russian journalist Yulia Latynina wrote an article, titled "The Mountain Begat A Rat," for the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, criticizing the "Kremlin list" compiled by the U.S. Treasury Department.[1]
In her article, Latynina noted t...

Egyptian journalist and TV host Ibrahim Eissa said recently that the Palestinians who carried out the 1972 Munich Olympics attack on Israeli athletes were terrorists. "When people storm the Olympic games and the Olympic village, and kidnap athletes – even if they are Israelis – t...

On December 2, 2017, a faction named after "the martyr Nidal Al-'Amoudi"[1] within the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades announced the establishment of "The Martyr Yasser Arafat Base, the first Fatah movement military base in the Gaza Strip." According to the announcement, the base is int...

Russia This Week is a weekly review by the MEMRI Russian Media Studies Project, covering the latest Russia-related news and analysis from media in Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe.
Cartoon Of The Week
(Source: Vk.com/politics_today, February ...

Introduction
Political elements in the West are framing the December 2017-January 2018 popular uprising in Iran as a clash of Iran's reformist and pragmatic camps – the latter led by Iranian President Hassan Rohani – with the Iranian regime's ideological circles. They have ad...

Dear Friend,
Today marks 20 years since MEMRI's founding. In these 20 years, MEMRI has amassed the largest archives of translated material from the Middle East and South Asia print, broadcast, and online media, as well as, since 2016, from Russian print, broadcast, and online ...

To mark the 20th anniversary of our founding on February 7, 1998, MEMRI is releasing a video compilation of excerpts from clips it has published over the years from Arab and Iranian TV, featuring journalists, officials, analysts, and other leading figures commenting on, condemnin...

In a December 21, 2017 article in the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram, Dr. Gamal 'Abd Al-Gawwad, a researcher at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies and a lecturer in Political Science at Cairo University, advised Palestinians to forego the armed resistance again...

Liberal and pro-government Russian experts reacted to the Kremlin list compiled by the U.S. Treasury Department.[1] Both camps seemingly concurred that the list resembles a lengthy roster of names copied from the Yellow Pages. Aleksey Makarkin a leading expert at the Center of Po...

In a January 21, 2018 article in Hamas's mouthpiece Al-Risala, 'Imad Al-'Afana, journalist and former secretary general of Hamas's faction in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), calls on the movement to expand its target bank and its arena of operations in its fight with I...

On January 29, the U.S. Treasury Department released a list of Russian political leaders and "oligarchs", which was submitted to the Congress. The department was obligated to compile the report, known as the "Kremlin list", as part of PL 115-44 (CAATSA) passed by Congress on Augu...

Introduction
On January 11, 2018, the Telegram channel of the jihadi organization in Syria Jaysh Al-Badiya ("The Desert Army") published a photo of some of its fighters and fighters from another jihadi organization in Syria, Jaysh Al-Malahem, en route to a battlefront in the s...

On January 29, the U.S. Treasury Department released a list of Russian political leaders and "oligarchs", which was submitted to the Congress. The department was obligated to issue the report, known as the "Kremlin list", under PL 115-44 (CAATSA) passed by Congress on August 2, 2...

The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, ...

Hamid Al-Husseini, Secretary-General of the Union of the Iraqi Radio and TV Networks, said in a TV interview that "the goal of the resistance is to preserve the current governments and regimes," so long as those regimes have "popular legitimacy." He further said that "it's no sec...

Ebrahim Raisi, associate of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who recently was apparently designated his heir, was photographed on a January 30, 2018 tour of the Lebanon-Israel border, accompanied by senior Iranian and Hizbullah officials. In the photographs, the officials' fac...

Jamida is the general secretary of an Islamic organization.
On January 26, 2018, Indian Muslim woman Jamida led the weekly Friday prayers at a mosque in the predominantly orthodox Muslim town of Malappuram in the southern Indian state of Kerala. While similar attempts by Mus...

Recently, after the popular uprising in Iran died down, and following U.S. President Donald Trump's waiving of the nuclear sanctions against Iran, the Saudi press published a number of articles harshly criticizing the Western policy vis-à-vis Iran.[1] The articles expressed disap...

On January 28, protest rallies were held throughout Russia to support the "voters’ boycott" called for by Russia's most prominent opposition figure Alexey Navalny. During the protest, Navalny was arrested and released shortly after, for organizing an unauthorized protest in Mosco...

Following reports on the medical examination recently taken by U.S. President Donald Trump, Fahed Al-Fanek, a senior columnist for the Jordanian daily Al-Rai and the former chair of the daily's board of directors, wrote that, even if Trump is physically healthy, this does not mea...

As part of the boycott declared on Qatar some six months ago by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt,[1] these countries drew up three lists of organizations and people who they say have ties to terror and are supported by Qatar. One of the organizations included on the third...

The following report is a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
On January 27, 2018, Amjad Visual Production, a media group affiliated with Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), published a video on...

Turkish political commentator Hüseyin Güneş said that Turkey's military operation in Syria constituted war against America, not just against several thousand terrorists. "If we defeat it in the region, this will spell the beginning of the end for America," he said, adding that Tu...

In a January 22, 2018 speech at an awards ceremony for officials from the Iranian diplomatic corps, Gen. Mohammad Reza Naqdi, former Basij commander and director of the culture and society division of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), emphasized that Iran's Islami...

Four years after the 2014 Gaza war, the myth that there is a need to rebuild Gaza persists. This myth is nurtured by both Israeli and U.S. officials. Touring the Hamas attack tunnels that lead into Israel from Gaza, U.S. Special Representative for International Negotiations...

Russia This Week is a weekly review by the MEMRI Russian Media Studies Project, covering the latest Russia-related news and analysis from media in Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe.
Cartoon Of The Week
(Source: Vk.com/politics_today, January 2...

On Saturday, January 27, 2018, a group of Palestinian activists, among them official representatives of the Fatah movement, held a public mock trial of U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence in the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, protesting the U.S. freeze...

Introduction
On December 22, 2017, at the end of the eighth round of intra-Syrian talks in Astana, Kazakhstan, which focused on the topic of the ceasefire, the three countries sponsoring the talks – Iran, Russia and Turkey – announced that a national dialogue conference would ...

"Russia In The World" is a MEMRI Russian Media Studies Project review of Russia's geopolitical interests and areas of penetration. This installment will deal with Russia's relations with African countries.
The original image was taken from Studiya 13's Facebook page.
Russ...

The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, ...

At a January 19, 2018 press conference, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov took questions and discussed Russia-U.S. relations, Russia's policies in the Middle East, and the JCPOA Iran nuclear deal.
Discussing the new U.S. National Defense Strategy (NDS),[1] Lavrov said tha...

Taslima Nasreen at a bookstore recently (image courtesy: Twitter.com/TaslimaNasreen).
In a recent article, internationally known Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen examined the role of fatwas (Islamic decrees) in Muslim societies. Nasreen, who now lives in exile in India due...

On January 21, 2018, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gave an interview to the Russian media outlet Kommersant, discussing Russia-U.S. relations, and the Ukrainian crisis. On the topic of Moscow's relations with Washington, Lavrov noted that the military potential of the tw...

On January 20, 2018, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence made a brief visit to Jordan as part of a tour that also included Egypt and Israel. This was the first visit to the region by a senior U.S. official since U.S. President Trump's December 6, 2017 announcement recognizing Jerusale...

"Russia In The World" is a MEMRI Russian Media Studies Project review of Russia's geopolitical interests and areas of penetration. This installment will deal with Russia's relations with the Central African Republic (CAR), and Sudan.
The original image was taken from Studiya...

Salah Diab, an Egyptian businessman and the owner of the daily Al-Masri Al-Yawm, who goes by the pen name Newton, published a series of four articles in which he expressed his longing for a visionary leadership that would extricate the Arabs from the sorry state in which they hav...

On January 18, 2018, the pro-ISIS media outlet Al-Wafa reported that German militant Denis Cuspert, aka Abu Talha Al-Almani (former rap singer "Deso Dogg"), had been killed in battle, and posted a photo of his body. Cuspert, a convert to Islam, formally pledged allegiance to the ...

In a December 18, 2017 article Nasser Al-Laham, the editor-in-chief of the Palestinian Maan News Agency and director of the Lebanese Mayadeen channel in the Palestinian Authority (PA), explains why, despite the high political awareness among the Palestinian people, and despite it...

Statement Of Concerns And Objectives By Tufail Ahmad, Senior Fellow At MEMRI
Introduction
Under its Reform In The Muslim World Project, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is publishing this draft of the Muslim Family Reforms Bill, 2018 to raise awareness a...

Russia This Week is a weekly review by the MEMRI Russian Media Studies Project, covering the latest Russia-related news and analysis from media in Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe.
Cartoon Of The Week – Putin The Electoral Tree Surgeon
...

In a December 8, 2017 Friday sermon at the Islamic Center of Tennessee in Antioch, a neighborhood of Nashville, Tennessee, Somali-American Imam Ahmedulhadi Sharif criticized terror attacks in the West, such as the October 2017 vehicular attack in Manhattan, saying that they "take...

In recent months, the Palestinian media has been debating the activity of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement in the territory of the Palestinian Authority (PA), in the context of the prohibition issued by the Ramallah Municipality against the screeni...

Leonid Isaev, a political analyst and a professor in the political science department of the Higher School of Economics, explained Russia's future role in the Syrian war, in an interview with the Russian media outlet Fotanka.ru. The announcement about the end of the Syrian campai...

The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, ...

Homosexuality has recently resurfaced as a topic of public debate in Saudi Arabia, following two events: reports about a wedding party for a gay couple in the Mecca region that was raided by local police, and a report in the Saudi daily 'Okaz about American actor Timothée Chalame...

On January 15, 2018, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov responded to questions from the media at a news conference on Russian diplomacy in 2017. During the meeting, Lavrov tackled all the main issues of Russian foreign policy. Concerning Russia-U.S. relations, Lavrov stated ...

In a December 6, 2017 lecture in the Raleigh area in North Carolina, Syrian Imam Abdullah Khadra warned that the Zionists were planning "to demolish the Al-Aqsa Mosque." "If we keep sleeping, they will just destroy it and build their fictitious temple," he said. The lecture was p...

Introduction
On December 2, 2017, the Syrian opposition website Zamanalwsl.net published the findings of a study on foreign forces' military airbases in Syria, including information on their location, what countries they belong to, what they are used for, and what their capabi...

Finding itself in dire straits due to its ongoing crisis with the four countries that are boycotting it – Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt – which is taking its toll in numerous ways, Qatar tried to enlist some outside help. Informed by the old anti-Semitic stereotype tha...

"Russia In The World" is a MEMRI Russian Media Studies Project review of Russia's geopolitical interests and areas of penetration. This installment will deal with the accusations that Russia is meddling in the Italian political process. Earlier in December 2017, Former Vice Presi...

The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, ...

As the Islamic State caliphate disintegrates, and it is not known for sure whether its leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi is alive, dead, or deep underground like Osama bin Laden after 9/11 – or possibly in a Syrian hospital in "critical" condition, as was widely reported this week – th...

Speaking on the Egyptian Alhadath Alyoum TV channel on January 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, TV host Aahmad Suleimn called the Holocaust "the greatest lie in history" and "that nonsense story invented by the Jews" for extortion purposes. He further said that Britai...

Russia This Week is a weekly review by the MEMRI Russian Media Studies Project, surveying developing stories in Russian domestic affairs as presented in the Russian media.
Image Of The Week
Official logo of the 2018 presidential elections.
Caption: "March 2018 – El...

Following Israel's downing of the Iranian drone that entered its airspace on February 10, 2018 and its subsequent attack on the drone's command center in Syria, Hamas and other major Palestinian factions such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Palestinian Islam...

Russian intellectual Fyodor Lukyanov,[1] who serves as research director of the Valdai Discussion Club, surveyed the results of the annual Davos World Economic Forum that took place on January 23-26, 2018. Commenting on U.S. President Donald Trump's presence in Davos, Lukyanov st...

In a sermon in 2016, Sheikh Mustafa Umar, director of education and outreach at the Islamic Institute of Orange County, California and founder and director of California Islamic University, talked about the hypocrisy prevalent in attitudes toward Muslims and Islam in the West – a...

Speaking at an event held by the Ethiopian-American Muslims of the Washington metropolitan area on January 26, 2013, Imam Shaker Elsayed of the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center said that the Muslims had three sources of power – faith, unity, and armaments – and that "the world only f...

In a January 19, 2018 Friday sermon at the Islamic Centre of Southwest Ontario, in London, Ontario, Canada, Imam Munir Elkassem said that "jihad is not fighting," but is "a very noble principle where we exert energy to effect goodness." Complaining that MEMRI had taken "cuts and ...

Saudi Imam Abdulwahab Al-Omari said, in a Friday sermon, that Allah turned the Jews into apes and pigs, and that on Judgment Day, they would be the soldiers of the Antichrist. According to Al-Omari, Jesus would descend before Judgment Day, accept the shari'a, and pursue the Antic...

On December 11, 2017, the Egyptian government daily Al-Yawm Al-Sabi' published an article by Hashem Al-Fakharani titled "From the '[Arab] Spring Plots' to 'the Buying of the White House' – The Protocols of the Elders of Zion Are Realizing Their Goals after 100 Years ..." In this ...

In his November 19, 2017 column in the Egyptian government daily Al-Ahram, political researcher 'Amr 'Abd Al-Sami' wrote that Egypt should establish military bases outside its borders, in the Horn of Africa, as many other countries have done. This move, he said, was necessary in ...

In India, the dominant image of a Muslim woman, both in the minds of Muslims and non-Muslims, is the one fostered by Islamic clerics. Much like how images of gods and goddesses help Hindus to mentally access the spiritual world, stereotypes are concepts that aid humans' abili...

"Russia In The World" is a MEMRI Russian Media Studies Project review of Russia's geopolitical interests and areas of penetration. This installment will deal with Russia's relations in Mexico and Colombia.
The original image was taken from Studiya 13's Facebook page.
Russ...

A February 9, 2018 article on the pro-Hizbullah Lebanese website Dahiya claims that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad recently rejected an Israeli demand, relayed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, to remove some 70,000 Iranian long-range missiles that Hizbullah has deployed thr...

Alongside statements by Palestinian President Mahmoud 'Abbas and other Palestinian Authority (PA) and Fatah officials expressing opposition to terrorism and support for non-violent protests, officials and media outlets of the PA and Fatah continue to praise terrorists and to pres...

On February 2, 2018, the U.S Department of Defense released its Nuclear Posture Review (NPR). [1] The major criticism leveled by pro-government officials and opinion leaders at the NPR is that the document is "anti-Russian." The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is primarily co...

On February 2, 2018, the U.S Department of Defense released its Nuclear Posture Review. The new U.S. Nuclear Doctrine states that while Russia initially followed "America's lead and made similarly sharp reductions in its strategic nuclear forces," it retained large quantities of ...

The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, ...

In recent days, and against the backdrop of the success of the military campaign by the U.S.-led international coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS), top officials of Iran-supported Shi'ite militias in Iraq that are part of the Hashd Al-Sha'bi (the Popular Mobilization Units...

Kremlin critic and prominent Russian journalist Yulia Latynina wrote an article, titled "The Mountain Begat A Rat," for the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, criticizing the "Kremlin list" compiled by the U.S. Treasury Department.[1]
In her article, Latynina noted t...

Egyptian journalist and TV host Ibrahim Eissa said recently that the Palestinians who carried out the 1972 Munich Olympics attack on Israeli athletes were terrorists. "When people storm the Olympic games and the Olympic village, and kidnap athletes – even if they are Israelis – t...

On December 2, 2017, a faction named after "the martyr Nidal Al-'Amoudi"[1] within the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades announced the establishment of "The Martyr Yasser Arafat Base, the first Fatah movement military base in the Gaza Strip." According to the announcement, the base is int...

Russia This Week is a weekly review by the MEMRI Russian Media Studies Project, covering the latest Russia-related news and analysis from media in Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe.
Cartoon Of The Week
(Source: Vk.com/politics_today, February ...

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 7, 2018 – The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), founded in 1998, is celebrating its 20th year of bridging the language gap between the West and the Middle East, South Asia, and now Russia through these regions' media, providing its readers w...

To mark the 20th anniversary of our founding on February 7, 1998, MEMRI is releasing a video compilation of excerpts from clips it has published over the years from Arab and Iranian TV, featuring journalists, officials, analysts, and other leading figures commenting on, condemnin...

Dear Friend,
Today marks 20 years since MEMRI's founding. In these 20 years, MEMRI has amassed the largest archives of translated material from the Middle East and South Asia print, broadcast, and online media, as well as, since 2016, from Russian print, broadcast, and online ...

In a December 21, 2017 article in the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram, Dr. Gamal 'Abd Al-Gawwad, a researcher at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies and a lecturer in Political Science at Cairo University, advised Palestinians to forego the armed resistance again...

Liberal and pro-government Russian experts reacted to the Kremlin list compiled by the U.S. Treasury Department.[1] Both camps seemingly concurred that the list resembles a lengthy roster of names copied from the Yellow Pages. Aleksey Makarkin a leading expert at the Center of Po...

In a January 21, 2018 article in Hamas's mouthpiece Al-Risala, 'Imad Al-'Afana, journalist and former secretary general of Hamas's faction in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), calls on the movement to expand its target bank and its arena of operations in its fight with I...

On January 29, the U.S. Treasury Department released a list of Russian political leaders and "oligarchs", which was submitted to the Congress. The department was obligated to compile the report, known as the "Kremlin list", as part of PL 115-44 (CAATSA) passed by Congress on Augu...

On January 29, the U.S. Treasury Department released a list of Russian political leaders and "oligarchs", which was submitted to the Congress. The department was obligated to issue the report, known as the "Kremlin list", under PL 115-44 (CAATSA) passed by Congress on August 2, 2...

The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, ...

Hamid Al-Husseini, Secretary-General of the Union of the Iraqi Radio and TV Networks, said in a TV interview that "the goal of the resistance is to preserve the current governments and regimes," so long as those regimes have "popular legitimacy." He further said that "it's no sec...

Ebrahim Raisi, associate of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who recently was apparently designated his heir, was photographed on a January 30, 2018 tour of the Lebanon-Israel border, accompanied by senior Iranian and Hizbullah officials. In the photographs, the officials' fac...

Jamida is the general secretary of an Islamic organization.
On January 26, 2018, Indian Muslim woman Jamida led the weekly Friday prayers at a mosque in the predominantly orthodox Muslim town of Malappuram in the southern Indian state of Kerala. While similar attempts by Mus...

Recently, after the popular uprising in Iran died down, and following U.S. President Donald Trump's waiving of the nuclear sanctions against Iran, the Saudi press published a number of articles harshly criticizing the Western policy vis-à-vis Iran.[1] The articles expressed disap...

On January 28, protest rallies were held throughout Russia to support the "voters’ boycott" called for by Russia's most prominent opposition figure Alexey Navalny. During the protest, Navalny was arrested and released shortly after, for organizing an unauthorized protest in Mosco...

Following reports on the medical examination recently taken by U.S. President Donald Trump, Fahed Al-Fanek, a senior columnist for the Jordanian daily Al-Rai and the former chair of the daily's board of directors, wrote that, even if Trump is physically healthy, this does not mea...

As part of the boycott declared on Qatar some six months ago by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt,[1] these countries drew up three lists of organizations and people who they say have ties to terror and are supported by Qatar. One of the organizations included on the third...

The following report is a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
On January 27, 2018, Amjad Visual Production, a media group affiliated with Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), published a video on...

Turkish political commentator Hüseyin Güneş said that Turkey's military operation in Syria constituted war against America, not just against several thousand terrorists. "If we defeat it in the region, this will spell the beginning of the end for America," he said, adding that Tu...

In a January 22, 2018 speech at an awards ceremony for officials from the Iranian diplomatic corps, Gen. Mohammad Reza Naqdi, former Basij commander and director of the culture and society division of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), emphasized that Iran's Islami...

Four years after the 2014 Gaza war, the myth that there is a need to rebuild Gaza persists. This myth is nurtured by both Israeli and U.S. officials. Touring the Hamas attack tunnels that lead into Israel from Gaza, U.S. Special Representative for International Negotiations...

Russia This Week is a weekly review by the MEMRI Russian Media Studies Project, covering the latest Russia-related news and analysis from media in Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe.
Cartoon Of The Week
(Source: Vk.com/politics_today, January 2...

On Saturday, January 27, 2018, a group of Palestinian activists, among them official representatives of the Fatah movement, held a public mock trial of U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence in the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, protesting the U.S. freeze...

Taslima Nasreen at a bookstore recently (image courtesy: Twitter.com/TaslimaNasreen).
In a recent article, internationally known Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen examined the role of fatwas (Islamic decrees) in Muslim societies. Nasreen, who now lives in exile in India due...

"Russia In The World" is a MEMRI Russian Media Studies Project review of Russia's geopolitical interests and areas of penetration. This installment will deal with Russia's relations with African countries.
The original image was taken from Studiya 13's Facebook page.
Russ...

The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, ...

At a January 19, 2018 press conference, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov took questions and discussed Russia-U.S. relations, Russia's policies in the Middle East, and the JCPOA Iran nuclear deal.
Discussing the new U.S. National Defense Strategy (NDS),[1] Lavrov said tha...

On January 21, 2018, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gave an interview to the Russian media outlet Kommersant, discussing Russia-U.S. relations, and the Ukrainian crisis. On the topic of Moscow's relations with Washington, Lavrov noted that the military potential of the tw...

On January 20, 2018, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence made a brief visit to Jordan as part of a tour that also included Egypt and Israel. This was the first visit to the region by a senior U.S. official since U.S. President Trump's December 6, 2017 announcement recognizing Jerusale...

"Russia In The World" is a MEMRI Russian Media Studies Project review of Russia's geopolitical interests and areas of penetration. This installment will deal with Russia's relations with the Central African Republic (CAR), and Sudan.
The original image was taken from Studiya...

Salah Diab, an Egyptian businessman and the owner of the daily Al-Masri Al-Yawm, who goes by the pen name Newton, published a series of four articles in which he expressed his longing for a visionary leadership that would extricate the Arabs from the sorry state in which they hav...

On January 18, 2018, the pro-ISIS media outlet Al-Wafa reported that German militant Denis Cuspert, aka Abu Talha Al-Almani (former rap singer "Deso Dogg"), had been killed in battle, and posted a photo of his body. Cuspert, a convert to Islam, formally pledged allegiance to the ...

In a December 18, 2017 article Nasser Al-Laham, the editor-in-chief of the Palestinian Maan News Agency and director of the Lebanese Mayadeen channel in the Palestinian Authority (PA), explains why, despite the high political awareness among the Palestinian people, and despite it...

Statement Of Concerns And Objectives By Tufail Ahmad, Senior Fellow At MEMRI
Introduction
Under its Reform In The Muslim World Project, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is publishing this draft of the Muslim Family Reforms Bill, 2018 to raise awareness a...

Russia This Week is a weekly review by the MEMRI Russian Media Studies Project, covering the latest Russia-related news and analysis from media in Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe.
Cartoon Of The Week – Putin The Electoral Tree Surgeon
...

In recent months, the Palestinian media has been debating the activity of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement in the territory of the Palestinian Authority (PA), in the context of the prohibition issued by the Ramallah Municipality against the screeni...

In a December 8, 2017 Friday sermon at the Islamic Center of Tennessee in Antioch, a neighborhood of Nashville, Tennessee, Somali-American Imam Ahmedulhadi Sharif criticized terror attacks in the West, such as the October 2017 vehicular attack in Manhattan, saying that they "take...

Leonid Isaev, a political analyst and a professor in the political science department of the Higher School of Economics, explained Russia's future role in the Syrian war, in an interview with the Russian media outlet Fotanka.ru. The announcement about the end of the Syrian campai...

The following are some of this week's reports from the MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) Project, which translates and analyzes content from sources monitored around the clock, among them the most important jihadi websites and blogs. (To view these reports in full, ...

Homosexuality has recently resurfaced as a topic of public debate in Saudi Arabia, following two events: reports about a wedding party for a gay couple in the Mecca region that was raided by local police, and a report in the Saudi daily 'Okaz about American actor Timothée Chalame...

On January 15, 2018, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov responded to questions from the media at a news conference on Russian diplomacy in 2017. During the meeting, Lavrov tackled all the main issues of Russian foreign policy. Concerning Russia-U.S. relations, Lavrov stated ...

In a December 6, 2017 lecture in the Raleigh area in North Carolina, Syrian Imam Abdullah Khadra warned that the Zionists were planning "to demolish the Al-Aqsa Mosque." "If we keep sleeping, they will just destroy it and build their fictitious temple," he said. The lecture was p...

Introduction
On December 2, 2017, the Syrian opposition website Zamanalwsl.net published the findings of a study on foreign forces' military airbases in Syria, including information on their location, what countries they belong to, what they are used for, and what their capabi...

Finding itself in dire straits due to its ongoing crisis with the four countries that are boycotting it – Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt – which is taking its toll in numerous ways, Qatar tried to enlist some outside help. Informed by the old anti-Semitic stereotype tha...

"Russia In The World" is a MEMRI Russian Media Studies Project review of Russia's geopolitical interests and areas of penetration. This installment will deal with the accusations that Russia is meddling in the Italian political process. Earlier in December 2017, Former Vice Presi...

In an article in the London-based Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, economist Dr. 'Abdallah Al-Radadi opposed the calls to boycott American products and companies in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital. He wrote that boyco...

In an address to the PLO Central Council on January 14, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that the Central Council "is required to reexamine the agreements between the PLO and the Israeli government." He responded to U.S. President Trump's recent tweets threatening to cut ...

On January 14, 2018, the Palestinian Authority (PA) Prisoners Affairs Authority, in conjunction with the governor of the Ramallah district and the Palestinian Prisoners Club, held an event in Ramallah to mark the 36th year of imprisonment of two Israeli-Arab terrorists – Kareem Y...

Russia This Week is a weekly review by the MEMRI Russian Media Studies Project, covering the latest Russia-related news and analysis from media in Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe.
Picture Of The Week– The Oracle Of Google
Google proclaimed Put...

The cover page of the book Yehud Ki Chalees Bimariyan ("Forty Diseases Of The Jews").
This is a book review of Yehud Ki Chalees Bimariyan ("Forty Diseases Of The Jews"), authored by Maulana Masood Azhar, the emir of Pakistani jihadi organization Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), and p...

Introduction
On February 10, 2018, Iranian forces in Syria sent an Iranian attack drone across the border into Israeli airspace; the drone was downed by an Israeli army helicopter. Israel then bombed the base and the command and control vehicle that had launched the drone, and...

Introduction
Political elements in the West are framing the December 2017-January 2018 popular uprising in Iran as a clash of Iran's reformist and pragmatic camps – the latter led by Iranian President Hassan Rohani – with the Iranian regime's ideological circles. They have ad...

Introduction
On January 11, 2018, the Telegram channel of the jihadi organization in Syria Jaysh Al-Badiya ("The Desert Army") published a photo of some of its fighters and fighters from another jihadi organization in Syria, Jaysh Al-Malahem, en route to a battlefront in the s...

Introduction
On December 22, 2017, at the end of the eighth round of intra-Syrian talks in Astana, Kazakhstan, which focused on the topic of the ceasefire, the three countries sponsoring the talks – Iran, Russia and Turkey – announced that a national dialogue conference would ...

Introduction
The Iranian regime is attributing the December 2017-January 2018 popular uprising in the country to two main factors. One is the public's access to the West-based Internet, and the other is the involvement of Iran's enemies, who seek to bring down the Islamic revo...

Background
U.S. President Donald Trump's December 6, 2017, announcement recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel evoked harsh reactions from both the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas. This was expressed in riots that took place in the West Bank with PA backing and ne...

After seven days of mass demonstrations across Iran, in major cities and with the participation of protestors who appear to be middle class, not only in smaller, far-flung cities with the participation of working class people, it can be said that the uprising has the following ch...

In September 2017, death threats appeared on social media against two liberal Jordanian journalists: Zuleikha Abu Risha and Basel Rafayeh, as well as against a parliament member from the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), Dima Tahboub. These threats prompted a renewed debate about a phenom...

Recently, and especially since the announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, elements in the resistance axis, including Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Iran and Hizb...

Introduction
Sub-Saharan Africa – A Growing Concern For The U.S.
Recently, the U.S. has launched an aggressive campaign against ISIS-linked militants in Somalia. One United Nations expert also posited that ISIS in Somalia could pose a significant threat to the Somali gover...

The caption reads: "When Hadiya was brought from Kerala to Delhi and presented before the Supreme Court... Hadiya's religious dignity was worth seeing." (Image: Urdu.News18.com)
Introduction
In India and other countries, there exists a societal phenomenon: In cases of int...

Following U.S. President Donald Trump's December 6, 2017 announcement recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, harsh criticism was heard in the Palestinian territories and in Jordan towards Saudi Arabia, which, according to various leaks, is promoting Trump's "deal of the centu...

Islamic clerics who addressed the event in Walthamstow, East London, on November 26, 2017.
Introduction
Will the UK become another Pakistan? The definitive answer is yes. The only question is when. In November of 2017, Islamists from the Sufi school of Islam laid siege t...

The following report is a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
Introduction
In recent weeks, the ongoing struggle between the Islamic State (ISIS) and Al-Qaeda for leadership of the gl...

Several weeks after the signing of the October 12, 2017 reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas, the euphoria that had initially been felt on the Palestinian street, and even more so in political circles, seems to be waning, and there are increasing doubts as to the poss...

The following report is a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
On November 24, 2017, armed terrorists attacked the mosque in the village of Al-Rawdah, near Bir Al-'Abed in northern Sinai, ...

The achievements of the Syrian regime and its allies in southern Syria in recent months have sparked growing concern in Jordan about the increasing presence of pro-Iranian forces on the Syria-Jordan border. Jordan's King 'Abdallah II expressed this concern in September this year:...

Following the November 12, 2017 meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam, President Trump agreed to, and legitimized Iran's expansion in Syria, including the deployment of Iranian a...

Many supporters of the U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization Hamas and its military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, have taken to Instagram to laud these groups' violent attacks, eulogize the attackers, and incite to further violence against Israelis. It appears that the m...

Introduction
At an October 31, 2017 press conference at the World Without Terrorism convention in Iran, Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), conveyed a message reassuring Europe in the matter of Iran's ballistic missiles. H...

In recent months, three large international fairs were held in Damascus, by means of which the Syrian regime sought to demonstrate its victory over its enemies and stress that the rebuilding of Syria has begun. The first and largest of the two was the 59th Damascus International ...

The issue of discrimination against Egypt's Coptic Christian minority has resurfaced recently in the Egyptian media. The renewed debate follows claims that the security forces, submitting to pressure by Islamist elements, are depriving Copts of their freedom of worship by repeate...

Introduction
All JCPOA supporters rely on the claim that "the agreement is working" and on the eight confirmations granted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to Iran that it is in compliance with the agreement .
Reality, however, invalidates this cl...

Jamaat-e-Islami leader Sirajul Haq addresses a Khatm-e-Nabuwwat conference in Peshawar.
Introduction
During September-October 2017, a major controversy led by Islamic clerics in Pakistan arose after a law was amended to reform the country's elections. At issue was Form-A,...

Introduction
The Switzerland-based ProtonMail end-to-end encrypted email service, launched in 2013, says on its website that it is "the world's largest secure email service with millions of users";[1] it also advertises itself as "NSA-proof."[2]
Labeled by Forbes as ...

IRGC Commander 'Ali Jaafari: "Iran bears the banner of the fulfillment of God's promises. It has taken a historic turn, and today a new era of global developments is beginning... [This era] started with imposing significant defeats upon the camp of the Great Arrogance, America. W...

Introduction
For a few years now, Islamic State (ISIS) supporters and militants have been using Instagram to share both personal photos and official ISIS content.[1] On numerous occasions, Instagram has also been used by pro-ISIS accounts to broadcast threats.[2] In 2016, a n...

The decree issued September 26, 2017 by the Saudi King, which lifted the ban on women driving in the kingdom, sparked a storm of reactions in the government media and on Saudi social media accounts. The government media reported extensively on responses welcoming the decision, wh...

Introduction
After a decade of Hamas rule in Gaza, internal criticism from Hamas officials and former officials is on the rise. This criticism comes against the backdrop of the movement's regional isolation, the flagging economy, the decline in security and the suppression of ...

Introduction
Recently, Western officials and commentators who support the JCPOA began to address two issues related to the JCPOA that they themselves admit to be problems that must be addressed. However, these issues – Iran's development of long-range ballistic missiles, and ...

In the recent weeks, there have been clear signs of further rapprochement between Egypt and the Syrian regime, headed by Bashar Al-Assad, although Egyptian officials repeatedly stress that Egypt is not taking sides in the Syrian crisis. Since Egyptian President 'Abd Al-Fattah Al-...

Introduction
On September 9, 2017, Saudi Arabia announced that it was cutting off all dialogue with Qatar on the resolution of the intra-Gulf dispute.[1] The announcement came following a phone call between Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Aal Thani and Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad...

Note to media and government: For a full copy of this report, send an email with the title of the report in the subject line to [email protected] Please include your name, title, and organization in your email.
Introduction
WhatsApp, the most widely used mess...

Muslims offer Eid Al-Adha prayers at Jama Masjid, New Delhi (image: Newindianexpress.com).
Introduction
Throughout 1,400-plus years of Islam, numerous Islamic scholars, teachers, and others have attempted to comprehend Islam. Each of them makes their own assessment of wha...

Introduction
Top Iranian officials have stated in the past that Tehran is learning from the experience of North Korea in attempting to actualize aspirations for regional supremacy and gaining the status of a global nuclear power.
Iran has achieved both of these under the co...

Incidents in Jordan in the past few months have shed light on the authorities' and public's view of the LGBT community. In June 2017, Interior Minister Ghaleb Al-Zu'bi canceled a concert by the Lebanese rock band Mashrou' Leila, whose lead singer is openly gay. The concert was ca...

Introduction
In an August 22, 2017 interview on IRINN TV, Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization Of Iran (AEOI) and a member of Iran's nuclear negotiating team, reiterated the threats made by President Rohani on August 3, 2017 regarding Iran's ability to qui...

A Jamaatud Dawa poster announcing the establishment of the Milli Muslim League.
This paper examines the new, emerging long-term nuclear security threat to India from Pakistan. On August 3, 2017, the Pakistani jihadi organization Jamaatud Dawa announced its intention to esta...

Roznama Ummat cover page reads: "Hanging of Mumtaz Qadri sank Nawaz Sharif."
Introduction
Pakistan marks its Independence Day on August 14. Each year, it is also a day to discuss Pakistan's identity and its future. The liberal argument is that Pakistan was founded as a ...

Kashmiris protest against the U.S. designation of Hizbul Mujahideen as an FTO (image: Dawn.com).
Introduction
On August 16, 2017, the U.S. designated the Pakistan-based Kashmiri jihadi group Hizbul Mujahideen a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). The U.S. State Depart...

Introduction
The attacks carried out in the name of Islam by terror organizations such as the Islamic State (ISIS) and Al-Qaeda, both in Arab countries and worldwide, have prompted recurring discussion about whether and how the school curricula in the Arab world have contribu...

This past summer, Fatah held summer camps for children and youth, each lasting several days, in cooperation with various Palestinian Authority (PA) security apparatuses. Some of these camps were held in bases of the PA's National Security Forces (NSF) in the West Bank, and were m...

This summer, bodies connected to the Palestinian Authority (PA), the PLO, and Fatah, in cooperation with the PA National Security Forces (NSF), ran summer camps for Palestinian children and teens. Especially noticeable were the Pioneers of Tomorrow camps, launched by the Higher C...

The Great Reversal: The U.S. vs. Iran – From Might And Deterrence To Weakness And Retreat
Within three months, the U.S.'s position in the Middle East has changed from one of might and deterrence against Iran to one of weakness, retreat, and being deterred by Iran. This situat...

On August 1, 2017, following a heated debate and as part of a series of legal amendments, the Jordanian parliament revoked Article 308 of the Penal Code that allowed rapists to avoid punishment if they married their victims. This places Jordan alongside several other Arab countri...

Introduction
Following the passage of legislation in the U.S. Senate suspending aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) because of the PA's extensive support for Palestinian prisoners and the families of Palestinian "martyrs" and wounded, it is being claimed in the PA that the p...

Introduction
Egypt's Al-Azhar University, the most important institute of learning in the Sunni Muslim world, and its head, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Tayeb, are currently facing a political and media attack led by the institute of the Egyptian presidency, headed by President 'Abd Al-Fat...

The JCPOA's Inspection Procedure Precludes Actual Inspection And Proof Of Violations
The public debate in the U.S. over the future of the JCPOA, amid media reports that President Trump has demanded that his national security team provide evidence of Iranian violations of the a...

"Baqiya wa tatamaddad," (remaining and expanding), one of the primary tenets shaping the Islamic State's ideology, and by extension its messaging, needs to be upheld so that the organization is perceived to be keeping its promises. At the moment, ISIS's grip on its strongholds of...

The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
Introduction
Even as the Islamic State (ISIS) is involved in fierce battles in Iraq and Syria, its official ...

The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
Introduction
The Salafi-jihadi group Jaish Khalid bin Al-Walid,[1] which was founded in May 2016 basin in sou...

On March 12, 2017, just four days after International Women's Day, Jamila Al-Obaidi, a Sunni member of the Iraqi Parliament from the National Coalition, convened a press conference calling for the promotion of polygamy and the rescinding of restrictions imposed on it by the law i...

Introduction
Recently, there have been significant developments in the conflict/rivalry between, on the one hand, Saudi Arabia and the Sunni axis that it established, and on the other hand Iran and the resistance axis. These developments concern not only the forces in the reg...

Since its establishment, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has been paying allowances to Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli prisons, both past and present, as well as to the wounded and to the families of individuals "martyred," including in carrying out attacks against Israe...

Introduction
In January 2015, MEMRI researched and flagged YouTube videos of support for jihadi fighters and "martyrs" and "martyrdom," to test the platform's "Promotes Terrorism" flagging feature. The test was a follow-up to MEMRI research and testing of jihad and terrorism o...

Introduction
On June 9, 2017, forces of the resistance axis, which is headed by Iran and the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, reached the Syria-Iraq border. This is an important accomplishment of these forces vis-à-vis the U.S. and its allies, and it not only boost...

The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
In all areas under its control, the Islamic State (ISIS) has focused on proselytizing and on spreading its ideology among...

Ahmad Musa Jibril, the Salafi cleric from Dearborn, Michigan, who some followers claim is sympathetic to the Islamic State, has a formidable online presence. This is all the more notable because following his release from prison in 2012, after serving an eight-year sentence, he w...

Introduction
On April 17, 2017, some 1,500 Palestinian security prisoners incarcerated in Israel launched a hunger strike, under the leadership of Fatah Central Committee member Marwan Al-Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences for murder. The timing of the strike, which...

Introduction
The result of Iran's May 19, 2017 presidential election indicates several characteristics of the Iranian political system:
The clear victory of incumbent Hassan Rohani, who won 57% of the vote against his ideological rival Ebrahim Raisi – that is, 23.5 million ...

Introduction
On May 4, 2017, Saudi King Salman bin Abd Al-'Aziz issued a royal decree easing guardianship (wilaya) requirements for women in the country. The decree instructs all government institutions in the kingdom to provide services to women without requiring the consent ...

By: MEMRI Staff
Several days ago, a severe crisis erupted between Qatar and other Gulf states, headed by Saudi Arabia, following the publication of a report of uncertain authenticity on the website of the official Qatari news agency QNA. The report, which appeared on the websi...

Introduction
After its 100 days of restraint and hiatus in its anti-U.S. threats and incitement following U.S. President Donald Trump's inauguration,[1] the Iranian regime has begun to cautiously change its direction.
Iranian spokesmen from the ideological camp are taking ...

On May 1, 2017, Hamas published a policy document approved by all the movement leaders. The leaders clarified that the document was not replacing the Hamas Charter[1] but was aimed at adapting the movement's position to the current time. The document was presented by Hamas spokes...

The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
For the first report in this series on ISIS in Sinai, see ISIS In Sinai And Its Relations With The Local Population...

Image: eremnews.com
The rising number of terror incidents carried out by ISIS-affiliated Jordanian nationals, along with the high numbers of young Jordanians joining Salafi-jihadi organizations that are fighting in Syria and Iraq,[1] have caused great concer...

The website IslamicMarriage.com enables Muslims from around the world to connect and form amorous and marital connections online. However, while the majority of the users on the website appear to genuinely be seeking love and marriage with someone who shares similar religious and...

The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
The military activity of the Islamic State's "Sinai Province" has attracted much global attention. In its war against the...

It has recently been reported that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) means to introduce changes to the curricula of the schools it operates in the West Bank and Gaza. The changes, to be introduced in stages, affect various ...

Imam Ahmad Al-Rawashdeh delivered a Friday sermon at the Old Tila' Al-Ali Mosque in Amman, Jordan, in which he said that "as long as they are dispersed, it is impossible to annihilate the Jews," but that Allah "informed us that He would gather the Jews in one place, so that they ...

Lebanese Defense Minister Yacoub Sarraf said, with regard to terrorism carried out in Europe: "I reject the notion that we should hold ourselves responsible for an erroneous, misleading idea, or that we should hold ourselves responsible for people who follow this path," objecting...

Iranian Analyst Mohammad Sadeq Al-Hosseini said that the Jews "were sent to us under the title of the Holocaust" and that "they established the Jewish state in agreement with Hitler," but that now they were "preparing themselves" to move to Germany. "They have bought 800,000 apar...

Al-Mayadeen TV broadcast a report on the Gaza attack tunnels dug by the Al-Mujahideen Brigades, the military arm of the Palestinian Mujahideen Movement, a group that splintered from Fatah. Abu Aziz, a militant in the brigades' missile unit, told the reporter, who toured one of th...

IRGC Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani compared Arab countries with ties to America to “beggars, running after some tiny rich countries.” Speaking in the city of Kerman on the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, General Soleimani said that the U.S. had done nothing for Iran...

Jordanian Senator Talal Abu-Gazaleh said, in a BBC Arabic TV interview, that the Arab Spring was not a movement for democracy. "What happened is that [the region entered] the 'Dark Ages' stage," he said, reminding the viewers of the Dark Ages of Europe. Abu-Gazaleh said that whil...

In a Friday sermon delivered in Columbia, South Carolina, Egyptian-American cleric Muhammad Syed Adly warned his congregation against sending their children to non-Muslim schools. Imam Adly said that gay or lesbian teachers might pass it on to their students. "The behavior, the w...

Palestinian girl "poet" Rouaa Al-Tamimi, age 7, appeared on the Ramallah-based Ajyal Radio show on February 7, where she recited a poem about a mother who gives her son a rifle as a reward for finishing his meal. The mother in the poem says: "Jerusalem is ours, Islam is our weapo...

Egyptian author Sayyid Al-Qemany criticized the Egyptian regime's calls for reform in the religious discourse, saying that they were directed abroad and were not intended for internal consumption. Religion "still constitutes the main source for the thinking of the regular citizen...

Egyptian TV Host Gaber Al-Karmoty marked the occasion of the downing of the Israeli fighter jet by the Syrian army by bringing a box of chocolates to the TV studio. "Israel was, remains, and forever will be the No. 1 enemy of Egypt and the Arab world," he decl...

In an Al-Jazeera TV interview on February 10, Russian political analyst and former diplomat Viacheslav Matuzov said: "I believe that Russia gave the Syrian army the green light (to down the Israeli F-16)." While in the past, Russia encouraged Syria to "avoid opening a second fron...

In a Friday sermon delivered in Tehran on February 2, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a member of the Iranian Assembly of Experts, said: "Our defense policy is to produce as many missiles as we can and to increase their range as much as we want." He further said that Iran would "not ent...

Tunisian Sheikh Mounir Al-Kamantar delivered a Friday sermon in which he said that the Jews were the slayers of prophets, that they "instigate strife, hatred, animosity, and corruption," "profit from usury and forbidden things" and are the enemies of Mankind. He praised the emplo...

In a recent TV interview, IRGC Deputy Commander Hossein Salami described Iran's defense capabilities, saying: "We have begun to develop highly precise ballistic missiles, which will be able to identify targets moving at sea" and hit them "with 100% precision." With regard to its ...

A video showing at least one woman fighting alongside men was released on February 7 by Al-Hayat, one of the leading media organs of ISIS. It documents several "martyrdom" operations by its "Avenging the Chaste Women" campaign of coordinated attacks against PKK forces. The video ...

Following the Russian-American dispute in the U.N. Security Council regarding the investigation into the chemical attacks in Syria, Russian political analyst and economist Mikhail Delyagin accused the U.S. of responsibility for the attacks, calling it a "major terrorist." Speakin...

Egyptian journalist and TV host Ibrahim Eissa said recently that the Palestinians who carried out the 1972 Munich Olympics attack on Israeli athletes were terrorists. "When people storm the Olympic games and the Olympic village, and kidnap athletes – even if they are Israelis – t...

Saudi Imam Abdulwahab Al-Omari said, in a Friday sermon, that Allah turned the Jews into apes and pigs, and that on Judgment Day, they would be the soldiers of the Antichrist. According to Al-Omari, Jesus would descend before Judgment Day, accept the Shari'a, and pursue the Antic...

Dr. Sayed Ammar Nakshawani, speaking at the Afghan Canadian Islamic Community (ACIC) in Toronto, said that Muslims tend to view every criticism of Islam as Islamophobia and called for true dialogue about the issues. Talking about the prohibition of homosexuality in Islam, Dr. Nak...

In a recent TV interview, Lebanese journalist Ziad Njeim said that the only thing he was sure of was his doubt that God exists. Zjeim refers to God as female "out of rebellion against the male-dominated religious institutions." "If men had any brains, they would not have brought ...

Australian preacher Mohamed Hoblos said in a lecture that if you miss one prayer, "you are worse than a murderer, you are worse than a rapist, you are worse than a terrorist, you are worse than a pedophile in the eyes of Allah." He stressed that: "This person, one person, who com...

A video produced by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades - Nidal Al-'Amoudi Battalion, a rogue Fatah splinter group, was posted on the group's social media outlets on February 4. The video, titled "The Enemy Is Within Range of Our Shells," shows the production of 120 mm mortar bombs and...

Fatah Central Committee Member Abbas Zaki spoke of the days of the "knife revolution" which, he said, "struck terror upon Israel." "Now that the knives are gone, the [Israelis] spread corruption, enter the villages, and wreak destruction," he said. Speaking at the funeral of Pale...

During a TV debate on normalization of ties between Egypt and Israel, Egyptian MP Nashwa Al-Dib said "our schoolbooks should go back to referring to it as the 'Zionist entity'... in order to teach our children that this entity is a plunderer of the land, the honor, the holy place...

In a video posted on YouTube following the downing of a Russian fighter jet in the Idlib province of Syria on February 3, Saudi Jihadi cleric Sheikh 'Abdallah Al-Muhaysini of Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) is seen celebrating the attack. "With the help of Allah, we shall restore the...

Speaking on the Egyptian Alhadath Alyoum TV channel on January 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, TV host Ahmad Suleiman called the Holocaust "the greatest lie in history" and "that nonsense story invented by the Jews" for extortion purposes. He further said that Britai...

Hussein Snoussi, a Dutch Muslim of Moroccan origin, recounted that his daughter Maryam had left for Al-Raqqa, Syria, to join ISIS without telling the family, and that a few years later, her mother had joined her, taking their son Elias, then 14, with her. He talked of his devasta...

TRT Arabia interviewed the father of triplets born in December in Gaza, who gave his babies the names Al-Qods ("Jerusalem"), Asima ("Capital"), and Filasteen ("Palestine"). The father said that he made the decision out of love for Palestine, especially following Trump's decision ...

Australian Islamist scholars Abu Bakr Zoud and Mohamad Doar glorified Saladin and his military prowess, suggesting that a similar role model was needed in order to regain Al-Aqsa. Speaking at a seminar on Saladin, held by the Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jama'ah chapter in Revesby, Sydney on...

Kuwaiti cleric Sheikh Muhammad Hammoud Al-Najdi gave an antisemitic lecture in which he described the Jews as treacherous and corrupting by nature and said that "the Jews are behind all the major institutions corrupting moral values - films, nightclubs, cinemas, brothels, and cas...

MP Anna Kuvichko of the ruling United Russia Party led a group of children from the military cadet class of a Volgograd school in an ultra-patriotic song. The lyrics call for the return of Alaska to Russia, mock the current international world order, and depict Russia as surround...

In a video released by Amjad Visual Production, a media group affiliated with Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), HTS leader Abu Muhammad Al-Joulani is shown speaking words of encouragement to a few dozen fighters in the field. In the six-minute video, titled "Confident Of Allah's Victo...

Turkish political commentator Hüseyin Güneş said that Turkey's military operation in Syria constituted war against America, not just against several thousand terrorists. "If we defeat it in the region, this will spell the beginning of the end for America," he said, adding that Tu...

Shiite cleric Mojtaba Hosseini, Iranian Leader Khamenei's representative in Iraq, said in a recent interview that Israel, which he called a "cancerous tumor," was "founded upon evil, strife, and interference in the affairs of other countries," and that it "will be extracted in a ...

Al-Jazeera took a look at the booming consumer economy of Gaza in a recent episode of its "Economy and the People" show. Footage from shopping malls, restaurants, and tourist resorts shows that business is thriving. According to the investors and businessmen interviewed, this typ...

During a demonstration organized by Fatah activists in the Aida Refugee Camp, north of Bethlehem, on January 27, a mock trial was held for U.S. President Trump and VP Mike Pence, protesting the U.S. freeze on its aid to UNRWA. After the reading of the "verdict," nooses were place...

In a January 19 Friday sermon at the Islamic Centre of Southwest Ontario, in London, Ontario, Canada, Imam Munir Elkassem said that "Jihad is not fighting," but is "a very noble principle where we exert energy to effect goodness." Elkassem complained that MEMRI TV had taken "cuts...

Jordanian Senator and Former Foreign Minister Kamel Abu Jaber said in a recent TV interview that "the disengagement was nothing but a political statement by the late King Hussein at a certain point in time, but by no means was it a political or religious disengagement from the Pa...

Hamid Al-Husseini, Secretary-General of the Union of the Iraqi Radio and TV Networks, said in a TV interview that "the goal of the resistance is to preserve the current governments and regimes," so long as those regimes have "popular legitimacy." He further said that "it's no sec...

In 2016, Sheikh Mustafa Umar, Director of Education and Outreach at the Islamic Institute of Orange County, California, talked about the hypocrisy prevalent in attitudes toward Muslims and Islam in the West, saying that Catholics and Catholicism, Jews and Judaism, and Buddhists a...

Sheikh Bassam Al-Kayed, head of the Palestinian Islamic Scholars Association in Lebanon, said in a recent interview that “the Jews in Europe committed the worst sins.” “Everybody hated them,” he added. “They were the epitome of evil.” According to Sheikh Al-Kayed, the Europeans c...

Moroccan author and researcher Abdelilah Belkziz said that contrary to the "common narrative" that the Jihadi movements were created by America and the West, these Jihadi groups are a "local product," created by our educational system and political culture, "which is based on exc...

Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahhar said in a recent address at the Gaza seat of the Palestinian parliament that "Trump's forefathers" expelled the Jews from numerous countries in Europe in medieval times because they corrupted everything through usury and extortion. Al-Zahhar said th...

Sheikh Jalal Al-Din Al-Saghir, a member of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, said that "the [Islamic] Supreme Council believes in the authority of Sayyid Khamenei, and believes him to be the supreme religious source of authority of the Shi'a." The council's commitment to the I...

A group of Palestinian activists in Bethlehem staged a demonstration to protest the visit of U.S. Vice President Michael Pence. The activists chanted slogans such as "Palestine is free" and "America is the head of the serpent." Children stepped on Pence posters, which were later ...

In a TV interview, Egyptian historian and Egyptologist Bassam El Shammaa downplayed the Holocaust, saying that the figure of six million Jews killed was "disputed among historians" and that "at the time, there weren't six million Jews in the world." "How come nobody talks about t...

Hassan Jibril, spokesman of the Popular Committees of the Gaza Refugee Camps, called the American decision to cut aid to UNRWA "political extortion." Speaking at a press conference on January 18, Jibril said that if the international community refrains from taking action, "the re...

In a recent Friday sermon in a mosque in Antioch, a neighborhood of Nashville, Tennessee, Somali-American Imam Ahmedulhadi Sharif criticized those who carry out terror attacks in the West, such as the October 2017 vehicular attack in Manhattan, saying that they "take innocent liv...

Iranian MP Mojtaba Zolnour, who chairs Iran's parliamentary nuclear committee and is a member of the parliamentary national security and foreign affairs committee, warned that "Hizbullah has armed the land of Lebanon with over 110,000 missile launchers, which lie concealed underg...

A three-minute video, distributed on January 18 via Telegram by ISIS supporters, shows an armed masked man speaking in Russian and declaring the establishment of a new "battalion" that will operate in Russia, especially in the Caucasus. His accent suggests that he is of Tatar or ...

Moroccan journalist and writer Ahmed Assid said that "we must reach the level of openness and sincerity that enables us to say that some texts should be nullified and completely abandoned because they are religious texts that pertain to a certain context which no longer exists an...

Professor Shafeeq Ghabra, a political science professor at Kuwait University and former President of the American University of Kuwait, said in a recent address that America and Israel "profit from fear" and that "you have come to completely depend upon American protection and, i...

Syrian Imam Abdullah Khadra gave a lecture in the Raleigh area in North Carolina in which he warned that the Zionists were planning "to demolish the Al-Aqsa Mosque." "If we keep sleeping, they will just destroy it and build their fictitious temple," he said. The lecture was deliv...

Imam Shaker Elsayed of the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center spoke at an event of the Ethiopian-American Muslims of the Washington metropolitan area and said that the Muslims had three sources of power – faith, unity, and armaments – and that "the world only fears those who fight back...

Sheikh Muhammad Ayed, known as "Abu Abdallah," gave an address at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in which he criticized Arab and Muslim rulers for their "subjugation to America" and said, following U.S. President Trump's recent exchange of threats with North Korean President Kim Jong-un, th...

Hamas TV Host Iyad Abu Fanun, a lecturer at Gaza University, said that "our entire people loves Jihad and the resistance. It's intrinsic to its nature. Our very genes love these operations." He was speaking on Al-Aqsa TV on January 4, 2018.
Iyad Abu Fanun: "The Palestinian rev...

Reza Taghipour, a member of Iran's Supreme Cyberspace Council, criticized what he called the "serious strategic mistake" of not establishing a national Iranian information network. This, he said, was what had led to the foreign-owned Telegram and Instagram networks "taking over" ...

Russian President Vladimir Putin drew a parallel between Communism and Christianity, saying that Communism implemented the same principles and that "they didn't invent anything new." His statements were aired on prime time Russia 1 TV on January 14 as a promo for a movie about th...

Yemeni teenager Nada Al-Ahdal, who fled home to avoid an arranged marriage at the age of 11 and has established an institute for the protection of children's rights, said that the institute dealt with a myriad of issues, including the recruitment of child soldiers, underage marri...

Saleh Al-'Arouri, deputy head of Hamas' Political Bureau, defended his organization's relations with Iran, saying that Iran, unlike other countries, provides "real and public support" to the Palestinian resistance, without concern for the consequences. Iran is "the only country t...

In an address to the PLO Central Council on January 14, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that the Central Council "is required to reexamine the agreements between the PLO and the Israeli government." He responded to U.S. President Trump's recent tweets threatening to cut ...

British Islamic scholar Sheikh Asrar Rashid said in a sermon that Israel should be reestablished in Germany because Germany was responsible for the Holocaust. "Why is Israel today the only country that is in the Middle East geographically, yet they take part in the Europe song co...

An Iraqi TV channel broadcast a monologue by TV host Muhammad Al-Tamimi, in which he alleged that former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni had had sex with Palestinian officials Saeb Erekat and Yasser Abed Rabbo. Claiming that she had made sex tapes and blackmailed several Ara...

Fatah Revolutionary Council Member Muhammad Al-Laham praised Fatah terrorist Dalal Al-Mughrabi, who participated in the 1978 Coastal Road massacre in Israel, and "all the martyrs, male and female, who are more honorable than all of us." Speaking on the official Palestinian Author...

In a Friday sermon, Imam Muhammad Abu Obeida Hassan criticized calls to amend the Sudanese constitution in order to enable President Omar Al-Bashir to run for another term in office. Those who say that "the only alternative to Al-Bashir is Al-Bashir" are tyrant-makers, sycophants...

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addressed the U.S. government, saying that any attempt to harm them "will not be left without retaliation." With regard to U.S. President Trump, whom he called "unbalanced," Khamenei said: "these theatrical games of madness will not g...

Egyptian journalist and political activist Abdel-Halim Qandil said that in the past three years, the Egyptian army "trampled" the demilitarized zones in the Sinai. According to Qandil, Egypt used the terror of ISIS in the Sinai as "a title – and I don’t want to use another word f...

On January 5, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, member of the Iranian Assembly of Experts, delivered a Friday sermon, in which he said that "Saudi Arabia gave the money, and America did the planning," and that the plan was to "gradually bring weapons into Iran, and in the month of Bahman,...

Indian cleric Zakir Naik, whose permanent residence status in Malaysia was recently challenged in court on the grounds that he poses a national security threat, gave a speech in which he said that "slavery in Islam can only take place if there is a war" and that while internation...

Gaber Asfour, former Egyptian Minister of Culture, said that the government needs to implement a family planning policy to prevent the rapid population growth in a country with more than two million. "I want a decision to stop pregnancies of people with more than three children,"...

In a December 8 Friday sermon delivered in a mosque in the Raleigh North Carolina area, U.S.-based Syrian Imam Abdullah Khadra cited an antisemitic hadith: "The Prophet gave us the glad tidings that at the End of Time, we will fight those Jews until the rocks and the trees will s...